Saturday, November 22, 2014

Friday, November 21, 2014

For some time now I have felt that the Midtown Blogger has run its course for several reasons.One is that I no longer live in Midtown Manhattan.Another is that while keeping some of the elements of MidtownBlogger, I would just like to try something new.My New Blog is BraveNewWorld.blogspot.com

Thanks to all my readers for following what I have done so far.Larry Kreger

This
poem was originally titled "Hafiz" and is a tribute to the Persian poet
whom Goethe, during his oriental phase, loved dearly. Such things are
not fashionable to say nowadays, but Goethe actually shows a greater
understanding of the character of classical Persian lyric poetry than
many western scholars who actually knew Persian. Though perhaps it is
simply that Goethe's understanding and appreciation of Hafiz' in all his
bacchanalian mysticism and mystical bacchanalianism, is so very like my
own. He seems to have perceived in Hafiz many of the same qualities
that I do, qualities which so many far more learned in Persian than I
have often been deaf to. Goethe even includes a poem in the Divan about
the shallowness of those who think it profound to call Hafiz a Sufi
Mystic.

In 1813, Goethe had
begun to read Hafiz in a recently published German translation by
Austrian diplomat and Orientalist Joseph Von Hammer, and felt inspired
to imitate him. When he met the beautiful and talented Marianne von
Willemer in Wiesenbaden, the two fell in love and found a powerful
connection in their shared admiration for Hafiz. In the passionate
correspondence that developed between them, Marianne and Goethe would
send each other coded messages via numerical reference to Hafiz' lyrics.
A great many poems drawing on "the East" for inspiration were born of
their fruitful, albeit ephemeral, affair. The end result was Goethe's
West-Ã–stlicher Divan "West-Eastern Divan", from which the poem
translated here is taken.

The
Divan is essentially an imagined and imaginative dialogue between the
German poet of Weimar and the Persian poet of Shiraz, a salute to an
artist who greatly appealed to Goethe (rather correctly) as an enemy of
dogmatism and lover of life's pleasures who prized spiritual experience
and disdained religious institution, and in whom he perceived (rather
mistakenly) a kind of Persian analogue to Voltaire. UnboundedJ.W. GoetheTranslated by A.Z. ForemanYou cannot end, and that's what makes you great.You've no beginning, and that is your fate. So like the vault of stars, your circling song:The end is the beginning all along,And what the middle holds for all to seePreceded all, and after all shall be.True fount of poets' joy forever new,Numberless waves on waves flow forth from you!Lips ever ready for a kiss,Song of the breast that sweetly wells,Throat ever parched for drink and bliss,Good heart that freely pours and tells.Let this world perish, so I knowI vie with you and only you,Hafiz! Lets share all joy and woeAs true twin brothers, one from two.To love and drink as you would doShall be my pride and my life too.Now song with your own fire, ring truer!For you are older. You are newer.

"The
26th century" doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as "the 21st
century" does. But that hasn't stopped us from imagining what our
hometown planet will be like in a few hundred years. Any guesses?

How
many times have you seen Godzilla do his Godzilla thing? So, Hollywood,
allow us to play matchmaker. Speed date with us as we get to know 10 of
the hottest big-screen virgins ever to claw their way out of our
nightmares.

"I'm
addicted to you baby. You're a hard habit to break." So wailed the lead
singer of the group Chicago. But there are harder habits to break out
there – like nail biting and procrastinating. Do you do any of the
things on our list?

Viruses.
Malware. Spyware. Add to the seemingly ever-growing list of things we
have to worry about when dealing with computers one more factor:
zero-day vulnerability. So just what the heck is it, and how does it put
us at risk?

The
age of a beer can dramatically influence its flavor -- and usually not
for the better. But what about its alcohol content? Does a decade-old
barley pop still pack the same wallop as one bottled the week before?

Over
the centuries, some of the most breathtaking buildings on Earth have
been restored many times. Whether they were to make necessary repairs,
update designs or adjust to changing needs, all these projects required
big bucks.

About Me

New Trier High School, Winnetka Illinois.... cancer survivor...NYU Grad School of Film and TV...Film Editor....Training Audio/Visual Writer for US Coast Guard...audio visual producer and public relations writer..had some pretty awful bumps along the way (haven't we all) --glad to still be around and in touch with so many friends from the past